Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine January 2018 | Page 98

96
Travel | Kepahiang
“Each family in this village owns a coffee
plantation of at least two hectares,” explains
Supriyanti as the fog sneaks into the living
room where we are talking. With deft agility,
she takes me around the coffee plantation
and shows me the rolling coffee mills
and the civets as I enjoy the smell
of coffee from the oven.
“We have quality coffee, from red cherry
Robusta, super Arabica, to civet Arabica,”
says Supriyanti. I take another sip of
the strong coffee to warm myself in
the midst of the chilly fog.
Soon after, I leave Bandung Jaya and find
myself in Tebat Monok village, at the edge
of the Bukit Daun Conservation Forest.
Here, I meet a middle-aged man named
Holidin who offers a different perspective
on the world and aroma.
Twenty years ago, he obliterated his
coffee plantation. Along with his six siblings,
he planted amorphophallus, a giant carrion
flower, which doesn’t bear fruit as coffee
and tea do.
“Not to be righteous, but erosion and
flood will worsen if deforestation continues,”
Holidin says. “This flower will also be extinct.
If the flower is extinct, what will be the pride
1 Tea pickers hitchhiking home on a pickup truck.
2 Tea pickers weighing the day’s harvest.
2
1
We have quality coffee, from red cherry Robusta, super
Arabica, to civet Arabica,” says Supriyanti. I take another
sip of the strong coffee to warm myself in the midst
of the chilly fog.
by fog, as if floating on a cloud. The aroma of
coffee fills the whole village. In the freezing-
cold afternoon, village head Supriyanti brews
hot coffee for me.